Weightlifting may be dropped from Sukma

KUALA LUMPUR: Enough is enough. Weightlifting now faces the big possibility of being dropped from the Sukma (Malaysia Games) programme as new cases continue to crop up.

The sport was reinstated in the programme for the Perak Sukma in September on the condition that no new case comes up. Initially, it was already left out from the list of core sports.

National Sports Council director general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi is not amused by the latest positive doping cases of three national weightlifters Muhamad Hakimie Haikal Nordin, Muhd Zaidi Nordin and Ronny Jesos.

The trio were caught in surprise tests done by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on March 28, bringing the number of positive doping cases to four so far this year.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mohamad Fazrul Azrie Mohdad recently failed a pre-games doping screening and will have to return the medal he won in Gold Coast last month.

Like Fazrul, the three athletes with ages ranging from 16-21returned positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.

Shapawi has ordered that training stints and competitions scheduled for all the Bukit Jalilbased lifters be stopped.

“We’re really disappointed as our previous Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin put the sport back in the Sukma on condition that there are no more new cases.

“But still, this has come up. We have decided to ask the athletes concerned to be taken out of the Bukit Jalil training programme.

“The rest of the weightlifters in our programme will be screened once or twice as we do not want anyone to be compromised, especially with Sukma coming up later.

“In the meantime, they will not go for any competitions and will undergo conditioning training instead,” said Shapawi.

He added the trio whose A samples came out positive sourced for the drug online from initial questioning.

“I have asked my officers to check further as we want to clean up the sport.

“A detailed report will be made based on the findings from the national weightlifting body and tabled to the newly appointed Minister so that we can decide at the next Sukma executive management meeting on the actions to be taken.

“It is possible we will drop them from the Sukma programme. It will be a collective decision,” he said.